Rating: 
Summary: Out of place
Review: I read Gregory Maguire's Wicked and absolutely loved it. I adore the idea of taking a common story and putting a twist on it. I was excited about this new book, so I reserved it at the library before it had even been published.I was sorely disappointed and that is being kind. I felt like I missed something important in the story telling process that would explain what was happening. The basic plot of the story is easy enough to follow. Bianca de Nevada's name literally translates into White from Snow (Nevada being a snowy region). Bianca is the daughter of a landowner, Vicente, who's mother died during childbirth. She lives with the cook, Primavera who acts as her nanny and Fra Ludovico, a priest. While draining a lake for irrigation purposes, they find a mirror laying at the bottom and put it up on a wall in their home. One day a campaign comes through and the Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia pay Bianca and her father a visit. The Borgia's are historical people, known for their wicked ways. Cesare sends Vicente out on a quest to find the lost limb of the Tree of Knowledge. The quest spans a decade and while Vicente is gone, Lucrezia drops in from time to time under the pretense of making sure Bianca is safe. She doesn't like the girl, but is never malicious toward her until her brother, Cesare comes along and is aroused by Bianca's beauty. Lucrezia is jealous of the attention Cesare gives to her and is bent on killing her. She employs Primavera's grandson, a hunter, to take her out into the forest and kill her, bringing back her heart. The hunter takes her out to the forest and tells her to run away, which she does. This is the part where I get a little sketchy because somehow Bianca falls into a deep sleep that spans several years. While she is sleeping, dwarves look after her. The dwarves are not those that appear in the Disney cartoon, they are completely separate and odd creatures. They are not really aware of themselves as unique individuals until Bianca comes to them. They are stone shape-shifters, obviously not human. There's nothing really interesting or endearing about the dwarves. When Bianca wakes up, there is an odd scene where her menstrual fluid comes out in one big spurt, as if it was being held back all those years. I'm still not exactly sure what that is supposed to symbolize. Bianca is quick to "befriend" the dwarves, although that isn't really the correct terminology because they are not her friends. They name themselves for her with names like Heartless, Gimpy and MuteMuteMute. They speak of an eighth, their brother. He has followed Vicente on his journey. The goal was to get their mirror back. Yes, of course, the mirror that was found at the bottom of the lake belongs to the dwarves. They created it in order to study humans so that they, themselves, might become more human. Vicente comes back from his journey with the limb. The limb contained three apples. One was left in another place for safe keeping. When he comes back, he learns his daughter is dead and Primavera has lost her tongue. Although it never states why, it is evident that Lucrezia had it cut out so Primavera wouldn't speak the truth she knew about Bianca. Lucrezia takes one of the apples and offers a slice to the stone dwarf that is following Vicente. The creature eats the slice and then takes the rest of the apple when it is offered to him by Lucrezia. The dwarf then leaves and returns to his brothers. They all eat from the apple. It seems to make them more human. It makes them age and change like a human would. Lucrezia learns that Bianca is still alive from the gooseboy who saw her in the forest. The gooseboy is supposedly Lucrezia's son, but that is another detail I missed the explanation for. Lucrezia becomes mad and tries several different ways to kill Bianca. She finally takes the last of the apples she was given and puts poison on one side of it. She gets Bianca to eat the apple by tasting from the non-poisoned side first. Bianca goes into another deep sleep lasting for years. The dwarves recapture their mirror and take the glass out to place over her coffin. Vicente stumbles upon her and just sits there for years before wandering off and dying. The gooseboy stumbles upon her and takes the glass off her coffin and asks to kiss her. The hunger, Primavera's grandson, comes back and stops the gooseboy and takes the pleasure for himself, awaking Bianca. Meanwhile Lucrezia wants to be happy and will stop at nothing for it. She is obsessed with the apple and feels that if she could have only had more of it, she would be happy. She remembers the third apple Vicente spoke of and sets off to find it. When she gets there, she finds a man who is using the apple himself. He has it in place of his heart. The end - that's it. The whole sordid tale doesn't make much sense to me. The story is too hard to follow and no one seems to be motivated to act the way they're acting. Things just happen for no good reason. Nothing is really explained very well. As mentioned before, this is a disappointment compared with Wicked. No magical world was created for me filled with wonder and emotion, friendships and excitement. Just a hard-to-follow story that is trying desperately to be exactly like, yet hardly familiar to the story of Snow White.
Rating: 
Summary: good start, bad finish
Review: i read wicked and stepsister and fell in love with this author. i read lost, and got a disappointing wake up call -- i bought this one hoping for a return to form... the first half is full of wonderful descriptions and well formed characters. i loved it. i couldn't wait for the fairy tale to begin once all the subplots were in place: then it happened. the second half of this book. wow. it's almost like someone else wrote the last portion. i think i missed the point of the dwarves altogether, which is upsetting, because i genuinely wanted to like them. i did appreciate the mix of history with fairy magic; however, the narrative was right on the point of taking off when it simply didn't. i can still hope for a return to form, can't i?
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as other Maguire Novels...
Review: I want to start out by saying that I really enjoy Gregory Maguire novels. I think that they are fantastic and very imaginative. But... I found this re-telling of Snow White to be lacking. I enjoyed the new twists that Maguire added. The Borgias were a great addition and his Snow White was very sympathetic. But the story was very short and none of the characters, except for Bianca (Snow White) and Lucrezia Borgia (Wicked Step-Mother) were fleshed out at all. The mirror itself was a problem. Very little detail was given about how it became magical. There was a little bit of an explanation, but nothing substantial. I expected more from this author. In short, I was very disappointed. It seemed like Maguire wrote an outline and someone else actually wrote the book. And not very well.
Rating:
Summary: A poor reflection
Review: I was quite disappointed with Gregory Maguire's latest novel. After thoroughly enjoying Wicked and Confessions..., I had expected at the very least to be drawn into the story, to have a sense of wonder, to care about what was happening. Instead, I found myself finishing the book out of a sense of duty rather than desire. To me, Maguire knocked this one off. Yes, I respect that he tied in the Snow White tale to real historical characters. But I thought that he did a far better job transporting a fairy tale into a point in history with Confessions than he did here. Mirror Mirror seemed forced: the changes in points of view were jarring, the poetry (yes, poetry) felt like filler, and I did not care about any of the characters. That being said, he prose is still strong, powerful. It's not the telling of the tale that I have issues with (well, except the abrupt changes in POV and first/third person narrative) but rather the plot itself. At the very least, I would recommend that readers wait for a paperback version rather than plunk down the cash for a hard cover.
Rating: 
Summary: Not the fairest of them all
Review: I've been looking forward to the newest Gregory Maguire novel for quite some time. I loved Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister but this one left me wanting something more from this story. I never felt any connection with any of the charaters and I didn't find amusement at a clever turn to a familiar story. This had all the elements to tell the old tale of Snow White from a different view point but there was never a firm grasp of one person as the main story teller; the story was too fragmented. I thought it was a great idea to put Lucrezia Borgia in the wicked stepmother role but there wasn't enough done with it. The view point of the dwarves also had great potential that was never fully developed too. All in all I was disappointed in this novel but it was still an interesting take on the story. If you haven't read any of Maguire's work I would suggest reading Wicked instead.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I've read "Wicked" and I'm 3/4 of the way through "Confessions of an Ugly Step-Sister" so I think that "Mirror Mirror" is simply an anomoly. The story didn't flow, the characters were flat, and the history was off enough to bother me. Honestly, I wish that I had skipped it.
Rating:
Summary: Maybe if you don't have anything better to do...
Review: It was certainly a creative book and I found it an interesting rendition of the tale of Snow White. However, it was VERY odd at times. Also, much of the book leaves the plot to the imagination, which I like, but I felt that some things could have definitely been elaborated on or expressed more clearly. I felt the author's style of writing was made to be excessively complex. Perhaps he subconciously wanted to emphasize the fact that this was a book for adults rather than children. Or maybe he just writes that way normally (I haven't read his other work). However, I think the story could have been told better in a different voice. If you like fantasy and history, you might want to grab this book if you have a long plane flight in front of you. That's why I did.
Rating: 
Summary: A Brisk and Lively Reading Experience
Review: Just for a second, forget everything you know about the well-known story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Forget the animated movie with the singable songs, forget the familiar story line with its happy ending. Instead, imagine a darker tale, filled with political intrigue, doomed quests and dark family secrets. Now you can taste a little of the flavor of Gregory Maguire's new novel MIRROR MIRROR. As he did with his previous novels WICKED (based on THE WIZARD OF OZ and now a Broadway musical) and CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER (based on "Cinderella"), Maguire takes the bones of these old, well-known stories and completely reinvents them into well-developed novels that can stand on their own. Maguire has been writing children's fantasy novels for a long time, so it is no surprise that he can skillfully play with elements of classic fantasy and make them into something totally new and often surprising. But don't think that MIRROR MIRROR and its predecessors are novels for children --- no, these are definitely fairy tales for grown-ups. In MIRROR MIRROR, history and fantasy are intertwined, and two of the main characters are the decadent (and incestuous) Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia. Near the beginning of the novel, the two pay a visit to the widower Vicente de Nevada and his strikingly lovely daughter Bianca at their villa, Montefiore, tucked in the hills of Tuscany and Umbria. Cesare sends Vicente off on a seemingly hopeless quest for the last remaining branch from the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. The beautiful but vain Lucrezia, her eye always on opportunities for personal advancement, offers to set up residence at Montefiore and keep an eye on Bianca. Vicente's quest takes years, and eventually he is assumed dead. Soon enough, though, Lucrezia's jealousy of Bianca's looks --- and specifically her resentment of Cesare's attraction to the girl's youthful beauty --- drives her to plot the girl's demise. As you might guess, however, the lovely Bianca survives, and the increasingly desperate Lucrezia is driven to more and more extreme lengths to destroy the girl who is "the fairest one of all." Maguire's skill in MIRROR MIRROR, as in his previous works, is with playfully reinventing familiar plots with darker themes and characters. Here the dwarves, for example, are not silly slapstick characters but shapeless, nameless stone-like creatures who gradually gain elements of humanity through their interactions with Bianca and their own quest to retrieve the mirror that causes so many problems: "The dwarves had hobbled out of their stony natures partly by accident and somewhat by design. . . . But now they couldn't empty their pockets of memory, of irritation, of regret or conundrum, of paradox or paradise. They were trapped by the laws of their own devising." The transformation of the dwarves is just one of the thought-provoking themes running through the novel. Character development, however, is not particularly strong in this book or in Maguire's previous fairy tale adaptations. In his earlier novels, Maguire played with characterization by making the reader care about traditionally unsympathetic characters such as the wicked witch or the ugly stepsister. In MIRROR MIRROR, though, the "evil stepmother" figure portrayed by Lucrezia Borgia remains unlikable from start to finish, and her motivations are never adequately explored. Even the character of Bianca is not particularly engaging --- she remains a passive, somewhat lifeless character throughout the novel. Part of the problem is the rate at which Maguire changes narrators --- each brief chapter is told from a different point of view, and just as we settle into one character's voice and vision, we're whisked away to the next. This narrative technique does make for a brisk and lively reading experience, though, which provides a nice contrast to the sensuous, luxurious descriptions of the Italian countryside. Readers looking for an imaginative, playful reworking of classic tales can't do better than Gregory Maguire's fractured fairy tales, and MIRROR MIRROR continues his strong tradition. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Rating:
Summary: A Brisk and Lively Reading Experience
Review: Just for a second, forget everything you know about the well-known story of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves." Forget the animated movie with the singable songs, forget the familiar story line with its happy ending. Instead, imagine a darker tale, filled with political intrigue, doomed quests and dark family secrets. Now you can taste a little of the flavor of Gregory Maguire's new novel MIRROR MIRROR. As he did with his previous novels WICKED (based on THE WIZARD OF OZ and now a Broadway musical) and CONFESSIONS OF AN UGLY STEPSISTER (based on "Cinderella"), Maguire takes the bones of these old, well-known stories and completely reinvents them into well-developed novels that can stand on their own. Maguire has been writing children's fantasy novels for a long time, so it is no surprise that he can skillfully play with elements of classic fantasy and make them into something totally new and often surprising. But don't think that MIRROR MIRROR and its predecessors are novels for children --- no, these are definitely fairy tales for grown-ups. In MIRROR MIRROR, history and fantasy are intertwined, and two of the main characters are the decadent (and incestuous) Borgia siblings, Cesare and Lucrezia. Near the beginning of the novel, the two pay a visit to the widower Vicente de Nevada and his strikingly lovely daughter Bianca at their villa, Montefiore, tucked in the hills of Tuscany and Umbria. Cesare sends Vicente off on a seemingly hopeless quest for the last remaining branch from the apple tree in the Garden of Eden. The beautiful but vain Lucrezia, her eye always on opportunities for personal advancement, offers to set up residence at Montefiore and keep an eye on Bianca. Vicente's quest takes years, and eventually he is assumed dead. Soon enough, though, Lucrezia's jealousy of Bianca's looks --- and specifically her resentment of Cesare's attraction to the girl's youthful beauty --- drives her to plot the girl's demise. As you might guess, however, the lovely Bianca survives, and the increasingly desperate Lucrezia is driven to more and more extreme lengths to destroy the girl who is "the fairest one of all." Maguire's skill in MIRROR MIRROR, as in his previous works, is with playfully reinventing familiar plots with darker themes and characters. Here the dwarves, for example, are not silly slapstick characters but shapeless, nameless stone-like creatures who gradually gain elements of humanity through their interactions with Bianca and their own quest to retrieve the mirror that causes so many problems: "The dwarves had hobbled out of their stony natures partly by accident and somewhat by design. . . . But now they couldn't empty their pockets of memory, of irritation, of regret or conundrum, of paradox or paradise. They were trapped by the laws of their own devising." The transformation of the dwarves is just one of the thought-provoking themes running through the novel. Character development, however, is not particularly strong in this book or in Maguire's previous fairy tale adaptations. In his earlier novels, Maguire played with characterization by making the reader care about traditionally unsympathetic characters such as the wicked witch or the ugly stepsister. In MIRROR MIRROR, though, the "evil stepmother" figure portrayed by Lucrezia Borgia remains unlikable from start to finish, and her motivations are never adequately explored. Even the character of Bianca is not particularly engaging --- she remains a passive, somewhat lifeless character throughout the novel. Part of the problem is the rate at which Maguire changes narrators --- each brief chapter is told from a different point of view, and just as we settle into one character's voice and vision, we're whisked away to the next. This narrative technique does make for a brisk and lively reading experience, though, which provides a nice contrast to the sensuous, luxurious descriptions of the Italian countryside. Readers looking for an imaginative, playful reworking of classic tales can't do better than Gregory Maguire's fractured fairy tales, and MIRROR MIRROR continues his strong tradition. --- Reviewed by Norah Piehl
Rating:
Summary: Who is the fairest of us all?
Review: Mirror Mirror is a retelling of the classic Snow White that is at the same time more magical and more scientific. Set in Italy in the first years of the sixteenth century, Maguire incorporates real historical figures and events into his twisting creation, most notably the famous Borgias.
He also fills the story with contrasting elements: purity and corruption, religion and superstition, dwarves of stone and humans of fire and ice. The many threads of the novel twine together to create an intricate and multi-colored rope, sturdy and intriguing as the dwarves and vixens peppered throughout the tale.
The writing is eloquent, though overly descriptive and often arrogant. The characters and setting are interesting and full; although the book is certainly not without faults, it is a deep, thought-provoking read that is ideal for adults who haven't outgrown a thirst for the fantastical but now hunger for something a little darker and more thrilling.
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